Sojin Kim is a curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, a research and education department that collaborates with communities in the U.S. and around the world on cultural heritage policy and cultural sustainability issues. She works on projects focusing on migration, music, and public history—with particular attention to the production of collective memory through performance, archives/collections, and the use of public space.

Sojin holds a Ph.D. in folklore and mythology from UCLA. She previously worked as a curator at the Japanese American National Museum and the Natural History Museum of LA County and as a coordinator for the LA Central Library’s Shades of LA project. She serves on the board of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP).

The public interacts with an installation created by a DC-area Central American artist collective, Viajeros de las Américas, at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s 2017 program On the Move: Migration Across Generations. Photo by Sojin Kim